The first ever anti-football painting: A consideration of the soccer match in John Singer Sargent’s "Gassed"

The paper presents a discussion of Gassed, a large oil painting by John Singer Sargent displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London. Completed in 1919, Gassed is the major achievement from Sargent’s commission as an official war artist at the appointment of the British War Memorials Committee during the latter period of World War I. Prominent in the painting is a group of soldiers, blinded by a mustard gas attack, being lead to a casualty clearing station tent. In the distant background of the painting, another group of soldiers can be seen kitted out in football attire playing a match. The significance of this football imagery is our point of enquiry. As our title suggests, some recent interpretations regard the painting as offering critical reflection, from the time, about the symbolic links between sport and war. However, while the painting may certainly be left open to this type of viewer interpretation, archival and secondary resource material research does not support such a critical intention by the artist. Yet, nor is there evidence that Sargent’s intention was the projection of war-heroism. Rather, Sargent’s endeavour to faithfully represent what he observed allows Gassed to be regarded as a visual record of routine activity behind the lines and of football as an aspect of the daily life of British soldiers during the Great War

Time evolution of condensed state of interacting bosons with reduced number fluctuation in a leaky box

We study the time evolution of the Bose-Einstein condensate of interacting bosons confined in a leaky box, when its number fluctuation is initially (t=0) suppressed. We take account of quantum fluctuations of all modes, including k = 0. We identify a ``natural coordinate'' b_0 of the interacting bosons, by which many physical properties can be simply described. Using b_0, we successfully define the cosine and sine operators for interacting many bosons. The wavefunction, which we call the ``number state of interacting bosons'' (NSIB), of the ground state that has a definite number N of interacting bosons can be represented simply as a number state of b_0. We evaluate the time evolution of the reduced density operator \rho(t) of the bosons in the box with a finite leakage flux J, in the early time stage for which Jt << N. It is shown that \rho(t) evolves from a single NSIB at t = 0, into a classical mixture of NSIBs of various values of N at t > 0. We define a new state called the ``number-phase squeezed state of interacting bosons'' (NPIB). It is shown that \rho(t) for t>0 can be rewritten as the phase-randomized mixture (PRM) of NPIBs. It is also shown that the off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) and the order parameter defined by it do not distinguish the NSIB and NPIB. On the other hand, the other order parameter \Psi, defined as the expectation value of the boson operator, has different values among these states. For each element of the PRM of NPIBs, we show that \Psi evolves from zero to a finite value very quickly. Namely, after the leakage of only two or three bosons, each element acquires a full, stable and definite (non-fluctuating) value of \Psi.Comment: 25 pages including 3 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. A (1999). The title is changed to stress the time evolution. Sections II, III and IV of the previous manuscript have been combined into one section. The introduction and summary of the previous manuscript have been combined into the Introduction and Summary. The names and abbreviations of quantum states are changed to stress that they are for interacting many bosons. More references are cite

Detailed Examination of Transport Coefficients in Cubic-Plus-Quartic Oscillator Chains

We examine the thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity of a one-dimensional (1D) chain of particles with cubic-plus-quartic interparticle potentials and no on-site potentials. This system is equivalent to the FPU-alpha beta system in a subset of its parameter space. We identify three distinct frequency regimes which we call the hydrodynamic regime, the perturbative regime and the collisionless regime. In the lowest frequency regime (the hydrodynamic regime) heat is transported ballistically by long wavelength sound modes. The model that we use to describe this behaviour predicts that as the frequency goes to zero the frequency dependent bulk viscosity and the frequency dependent thermal conductivity should diverge with the same power law dependence on frequency. Thus, we can define the bulk Prandtl number as the ratio of the bulk viscosity to the thermal conductivity (with suitable prefactors to render it dimensionless). This dimensionless ratio should approach a constant value as frequency goes to zero. We use mode-coupling theory to predict the zero frequency limit. Values of the bulk Prandtl number from simulations are in agreement with these predictions over a wide range of system parameters. In the middle frequency regime, which we call the perturbative regime, heat is transported by sound modes which are damped by four-phonon processes. We call the highest frequency regime the collisionless regime since at these frequencies the observing times are much shorter than the characteristic relaxation times of phonons. The perturbative and collisionless regimes are discussed in detail in the appendices.Comment: Latex with references in .bib file. 36 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to J. Stat. Phys. on Sept. 2

Only connect: unifying the social in social work and social media

This paper utilises ‘Only Connect’, the epigraph from Forster’s novel ‘Howards End’ as the starting point for exploring the challenges and opportunities of integrating social networking with relationship based social work practice. The paper discusses the more deleterious implications of social networking, whilst assuming a deliberately optimistic stance to uncover ways in which the opportunities afforded by online space can be utilised effectively within social work education and practice. Whilst recognising that social networking platforms are transforming constantly, the paper adopts Kaplan’s definition of social media as a ‘group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0’. Whilst much of the discussion within the paper relates to Twitter and Facebook, two of the most endemic international social networking platforms, it is also applicable to myriad forms of social networking. The paper begins with a discussion of UK professional conduct cases and explores these both within Klein’s concept of splitting and historical attitudes to new technologies. Drawing from emerging research data and other examples, the positive relational practices educed by social media within social work education and practice are emphasised and discussed. The paper concludes by highlighting Forster’s plea for connection and recommending that social work embraces the renewed opportunities provided by online networking

Review article: the future of microbiome-based therapeutics

Published online 24 May 2022Background: From consumption of fermented foods and probiotics to emerging applications of faecal microbiota transplantation, the health benefit of manipulating the human microbiota has been exploited for millennia. Despite this history, recent technological advances are unlocking the capacity for targeted microbial manipulation as a novel therapeutic.Aim: This review summarises the current developments in microbiome- based medicines and provides insight into the next steps required for therapeutic development.Methods: Here we review current and emerging approaches and assess the capabilities and weaknesses of these technologies to provide safe and effective clinical inter-ventions. Key literature was identified through Pubmed searches with the following key words, ‘microbiome’, ‘microbiome biomarkers’, ‘probiotics’, ‘prebiotics’, ‘synbiotics’, ‘faecal microbiota transplant’, ‘live biotherapeutics’, ‘microbiome mimetics’ and ‘postbiotics’.Results: Improved understanding of the human microbiome and recent technological advances provide an opportunity to develop a new generation of therapies. These therapies will range from dietary interventions, prebiotic supplementations, single probiotic bacterial strains, human donor-derived faecal microbiota transplants, ra-tionally selected combinations of bacterial strains as live biotherapeutics, and the beneficial products or effects produced by bacterial strains, termed microbiome mimetics.Conclusions: Although methods to identify and refine these therapeutics are continually advancing, the rapid emergence of these new approaches necessitates accepted technological and ethical frameworks for measurement, testing, laboratory practices and clinical translation.Emily L. Gulliver, Remy B. Young, Michelle Chonwerawong, Gemma L. D'Adamo, Tamblyn Thomason, James T. Widdop, Emily L. Rutten, Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino, Robert V. Bryant, Samuel P. Costello, Claire L. O'Brien, Georgina L. Hold, Edward M. Giles, Samuel C. Forste

Clinical findings in patellofemoral osteoarthritis compared to individually-matched controls: A pilot study

Objective To explore clinical characteristics in individuals with patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PFOA) compared to individually-matched asymptomatic controls. We also explored associations between functional performance and patient-reported symptoms with patellofemoral alignment. Methods We assessed 15 individuals with PFOA and 15 individually-matched asymptomatic controls. In addition to physical examination and patient-reported questionnaires, we evaluated functional performance, lower extremity strength and range of motion, and patellar alignment (using MRI). We analysed group differences with Wilcoxon's matched-pairs signed rank tests, and within-group associations with Spearman's rank correlations. Results We included 24 (80%) women with median (IQR) age of 56 (9) years and BMI of 22.8 (5.9) kg/m 2. Individuals with PFOA reported lower quality of life (8/100 points lower EQ-5D-5L, p=0.02), and performed worse on two functional tests: repeated one-leg rises (median 16 fewer rises, p=0.04) and timed stair climb (1.2 s slower, p=0.03). There were no differences in strength tests performed or range of motion. Patellar proximal translation correlated with worse functional performance and worse patient-reported pain, function and self-efficacy, while lateral translation and lateral tilt correlated with worse knee-related quality of life (Spearman's r ranging from 0.5 to 0.7). Conclusion Functional performance was worse in individuals with PFOA, despite those individuals having no significant differences on lower extremity strength testing. Patellofemoral alignment was associated with worse functional performance as well as worse patient-reported outcomes, and it may represent one mechanism underpinning PFOA-related symptoms

Neuroimaging-based classification of PTSD using data-driven computational approaches: a multisite big data study from the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD consortium

Background: Recent advances in data-driven computational approaches have been helpful in devising tools to objectively diagnose psychiatric disorders. However, current machine learning studies limited to small homogeneous samples, different methodologies, and different imaging collection protocols, limit the ability to directly compare and generalize their results. Here we aimed to classify individuals with PTSD versus controls and assess the generalizability using a large heterogeneous brain datasets from the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD Working group. Methods: We analyzed brain MRI data from 3,477 structural-MRI; 2,495 resting state-fMRI; and 1,952 diffusion-MRI. First, we identified the brain features that best distinguish individuals with PTSD from controls using traditional machine learning methods. Second, we assessed the utility of the denoising variational autoencoder (DVAE) and evaluated its classification performance. Third, we assessed the generalizability and reproducibility of both models using leave-one-site-out cross-validation procedure for each modality. Results: We found lower performance in classifying PTSD vs. controls with data from over 20 sites (60 % test AUC for s-MRI, 59 % for rs-fMRI and 56 % for D-MRI), as compared to other studies run on single-site data. The performance increased when classifying PTSD from HC without trauma history in each modality (75 % AUC). The classification performance remained intact when applying the DVAE framework, which reduced the number of features. Finally, we found that the DVAE framework achieved better generalization to unseen datasets compared with the traditional machine learning frameworks, albeit performance was slightly above chance. Conclusion: These results have the potential to provide a baseline classification performance for PTSD when using large scale neuroimaging datasets. Our findings show that the control group used can heavily affect classification performance. The DVAE framework provided better generalizability for the multi-site data. This may be more significant in clinical practice since the neuroimaging-based diagnostic DVAE classification models are much less site-specific, rendering them more generalizable.Stress-related psychiatric disorders across the life spa